Sense of Place. European Landscape Photography @ BozarSense of Place is the central exhibition of the Summer of Photography biennale. Sense of Place brings together around 160 landscape photos by over 40 contemporary European photographers, including Olafur Eliasson, Carl De Keyzer, Elina Brotherus, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Marianna Christofides, Andreas Gursky, and Massimo Vitali.

The theme of the Summer of Photography 2012 edition is landscape photography. "Sense of Place: European Landscape Photography" simultaneously focuses on the similarities and differences across Europe, both in the landscapes and in the attitude of people towards those landscapes. Through their pictures, young talents and renowned photographers provide a personal vision of the landscapes of their homeland ::

Idyllic unspoiled nature

Chrystel Lebas (France) documents the effects of movement of light at a lake over a 24 hour period. Per Bak Jensen's photos are almost meditative images of the waterfalls, coastlines, and forests of his native Denmark. Amongst other subjects, Irene Kung (Italy) portrays olive trees, typical of the Italian countryside. The quasi-stereotypical pictures of Irish country life by Jackie Nickerson seem almost to come from another era. Nature thus becomes almost a part of our heritage...

Landscapes hugely influenced by human activity

The impressive photos of densely populated beaches by Massimo Vitali (Italy) are an allegory of contemporary mass culture. As Thomas Weinberger (Germany) and Maros Krivy (Slovakia) both suggest, heavy industrialisation suppresses nature under cables, motorways, and industrial estates. In the Beaufortain region of the French Alps, a gigantic hydropower plant looms large, recorded by Céline Glanet. But the economic tide can also turn. Anthony Haughey shows how the Irish crisis changed the Irish landscape into an unfinished, overgrown building site...

Speaking the language of aesthetics

Joan Fontcuberta (Spain) references landscapes in Dali's paintings. Andreas Gursky edits his landscapes so drastically that they almost become abstract works. Olafur Eliasson, with his series of wide, outstretched horizons, and Gerco de Ruijter, whose photos of the over cultivated Dutch landscape are reminiscent of Mondrian, could also both be compared to abstract art...